Fancy Pants (1950)

"Fancy Pants" is a reworking of the story from "Ruggles of Red Gap", though I strongly advise you to try to find this film (particularly the version starring Charles Laughton) instead. In no way is this film the equal to "Ruggles".When the film begins, Bob Hope is an American actor who specialized in playing Butlers in British plays. Well, some Americans from the west convince him to return with them to Wyoming and be their classy Gentleman's Gentleman. Not wanting to disappoint the nouveaux rich (after all, they do have money), the follows. However, later the locals think that he's an Earl and suddenly he's no longer the hired help but the special house guest of this family. Soon, the President himself is traveling their way...and he, too, would love to meet the Earl.The film is just okay...and in every way the earlier films are better. Instead of being sweet, this Hope film is kooky and a bit silly...but nothing more.By the way, this film represents the biggest waste of Eric Blore in film history. See the picture...you'll see what I mean.

Bob Hope and Lucille Ball were at the top of their careers when they made "Fancy Pants" in 1950. Both would stay at the top for three more decades. In this film, the two are joined by a supporting cast of several long-time performers for what appears to be a rollicking fun time with the process. Hope plays an actor (Arthur Tyler) who plays a butler (Humphrey) who plays an English nobleman (the Earl of Brinstead). Ball plays Agie Floud, a wealthy young American Westerner. Joining the fun are Bruce Cabot as Cart Belknap, Jack Kirkwood as Mike Floud, Lea Penman as Effie Floud, Eric Blore as Sir Wimbley, and John Alexander as Teddy Roosevelt. The movie is a hoot as the plot moves from a theater stage in London, to a train across America, to the Floud's hometown in the American Southwest. This comedy has a nice mix of funny lines, slapstick accidents, and silly to hilarious situations. It's a light piece of entertainment that the whole family should enjoy.

By the time this film came out, Bob Hope's name would have been a household word, which along with the plot device, might have been the reason he was introduced in the opening credits as Mr. Robert Hope (formerly Bob). Lucy's household name status was still a few years off even though she had a considerable resume by this time with over eighty movie appearances, though many of them bit parts and uncredited. The only time I ever saw them work together would have been on one of the old Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts, so catching them in this sixty five year old film was something of a treat. They actually had a decent chemistry here amid the myriad of jokes and pratfalls.Based on the earlier "Ruggles of Red Gap" series of films, it's pretty safe to say that Hope is no Charles Laughton, who lent an air of wit and sophistication to his version of the character in the 1935 movie. In this picture, Hope's character is an actor named Arthur Tyler, transplanted to the New Mexico territory of 1905 by a would be socialite in order to impress her neighbors. Effie Floud's (Lea Penman) daughter is Aggie, portrayed by Lucille Ball, in a characterization that comes fairly close to her zany Lucy Ricardo of 'I Love Lucy' fame.The picture routinely uses the names from the Laughton movie, the Flouds are still the Flouds, but variations like Brinstead replace Burnstead, and of course there was no Humphrey in the earlier picture, the first name we come to associate with Hope in the picture. Here he has a nemesis in the way of Cart Belknap (Bruce Cabot), Aggie's fiancé and a major thorn in Humphrey/Tyler's side. During an era when political correctness was all but unheard of, the appearance of characters like Wampum the kitchen hand and Wong the cook often tend to embarrass, but more so for their acting then their actual roles.Fans of Hope and Ms. Ball will certainly want to catch their camaraderie here. It's an entertaining picture with a fair share of laughs, and if nothing else, you'll wonder how they ever came up with that bird cage hair-do for Lucy, I mean Aggie.

Fairly tame Bob Hope and Lucille Ball vehicle here which starts out strongly then sort of arfs to a conclusion. Bob Hope is an actor who makes a living doing gawdawful English plays. When a young English man is trying to woo a American girl (played by Lucille Ball) he tricks her and her mother to come to his house for tea and meet his family, but it's not really his family you see, he has hired the actors of the English play to be his relatives! (Watch for the old guy playing the Father, he gives one hilarious unintelligible Cockney rant). The girl and Mother aren't impressed by the suitor, but they ARE impressed by Hope's Butlering, so he joins them in their homestead in America. But Ball's problems aren't over! There's another suitor, so Ball makes Hope a Duke from England who is another suitor.. Soon, all heck breaks out with fights, horse races, and uh, Teddy Roosevelt mixed up in there. While this movie DOES have a lot of heart, and is sure fun to watch Hope and Ball in action, the film sort of loses it in the final act, which is a shame, because I found myself laughing quite a bit during this movie (Hope's "3 against a 1000" story is classic), it's stupid ending doesn't really help much either, what was that all about?